Exploring the streets of Tokyo

I spent two weeks in Japan this past November, and one of my personal photographic missions for the trip was to try my hand at street photography.

I had my Olympus E-M1 Mark II with me, with the 17mm ƒ/1.2 PRO lens mounted for most of the street shots. While in Tokyo, I also had a wonderful time visiting Ricoh’s gallery store in Ginza, where I treated myself to a shiny new Ricoh GR II.

It’s a camera I’d read a lot about but never quite understood the appeal of. It only took a few minutes of shooting with it out in the world to understand what the hype is all about—it’s a stealthy, tiny, comfortable, and quick photographic tool that produces outstandingly sharp and punchy images. I look forward to trying the new GR III when I can.

We spent about half our trip in and around Tokyo, and it very quickly became one of my favourite cities that I’ve visited. It has a boundless but classy sort of energy to it, and its vast expanse of small streets and interesting people make it a photographic gold mine.

These are some of my favourite shots from within the city: